Updated: Smith’s member items are of interest

Four [formerly three] people familiar with the issue said today the United States Attorney’s Office has more paper circulating in Albany, subpoenaing the state Senate for President Malcolm Smith’s member items to a charity in his Queens district. One of the sources said the subpoena came from the Southern District of New York.

The three people say that the Manhattan prosecutors office called for Smith’s community projects grants to New Direction Local Development Corp., which was set up to promote economic development in southern Queens, but somehow got into raising and distributing funds to Hurricane Katrina victims.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Smith, said he could neither confirm or deny the requests for information. Smith’s member items for the nonprofit total in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The same prosecutors subpoenaed the Division of Lottery for materials on the bids for the rights to develop a video lottery terminal facility at Aqueduct Race Track. Gov. David Paterson’s counsel Peter Kiernan has said the inquiry is about New Direction, although the subpoena dropped on the Lottery doesn’t say that.

Update: Here are Smith’s requests for member items for New Direction in 2003-04 (mentioning 2002-03’s payment) and 2004-05. The documents come from the TU Capitol vault, part of the haul brought back by the paper’s successful 2007 lawsuit against the Legislature seeking “Local Initiative” forms, aka member-item requests: